Christian thought and practice has always regarded humility as the fundamental virtue serving as the foundation of the whole edifice of Christian virtue.

Humility is truth in self-understanding.  This is the heart of the matter.  This is where humility is shown as the direct opposite of pride.  It means that we have a genuine awareness of our human condition as creatures of God.  It means that we are happily convinced of this most basic truth about ourselves: that God is the Creator and the Source of our life and our gifts.

"The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything.  Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything...'In him we live and move and have our being...'"(Acts 17:24-25, 28)

The most basic truth about ourselves is that every gift and talent we have comes to us from the creative hand of God.  Truth in self-knowledge asks only that we remember this.  Humility does not demand that we deny our goodness, our gifts, our talents.  It demands only that we acknowledge where they came from. 

Unfortunately, the word pride is often used to describe persons who have a positive sense of their dignity and worth or a pleased satisfaction in their gifts and achievements.  Used in this sense, pride is certainly not sinful.  It is a kind of heresy to think that true self-love is necessarily motivated by pride.

We must make a sharp distinction between true self-love and exaggerated self-centeredness.  True self-love means that we believe and accept a profound truth about ourselves: namely that we are made in the image and likeness of God, are profoundly loved by God, and lavishly gifted by God.  We can love ourselves not for false reasons but for the best of all reasons.  Provided we recognize that our goodness comes from God, we are practicing humility in acknowledging it.

-thoughts taken from Choosing Virtue in a Changing World: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins
by Daniel L. Lowery, C.SS.R